


Bad Press

by thegirlwiththemouseyhair



Category: Velvet Goldmine
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 01:44:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16777144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegirlwiththemouseyhair/pseuds/thegirlwiththemouseyhair
Summary: Maybe she can justify it as telling her own story...





	Bad Press

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GotTheSilver](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GotTheSilver/gifts).



She’s been going to this pottery studio near her apartment, getting her hands dirty, and making quirky shit. Some of it looks decent. Funky, like. It dries out her skin, but it forces her out of the house. There’s also poetry readings, open mic nights, and bisexual activism. Mandy’s not a fucking sell-out like Brian. She actually has values. It goes in her biography on every program, at every place that’ll hire her, and she’ll bring it up in this stupid interview, too, when the guy shows. She always does. 

The last one, the last reporter, also made it all about Brian. She has no doubt this one will do the same. Was it Brian who encouraged her to come out? To experiment, as if her sexuality were a costume to try on for a bit? Yeah, right. She designed half of Brian’s  _ real  _ costumes, in the early days, with no credit, but she was bi before she or anyone had ever heard of Brian Slade. Hell, she’d gotten kicked out of Catholic school for fucking another girl.

The problem with reporters is they ask such stupid questions. She doesn’t know why she keeps agreeing to these things.

_ “Was it the open marriage that was untenable?” _ Another nope. She’s had delightful open relationships, with men and women. Anyway, that was a leading question if she ever heard one.  _ “Was it Curt Wild?” _ That one was tougher to answer. 

Mandy scowls as she pushes open the door of the bar. Background noise, people chattering and glass clinking, assails her. Jesus. She’ll have to drag it all up again. He’ll be here in a few minutes. She hopes this British guy won’t be the asshole his predecessor was. Curt Wild was - is - too complicated to explain to asshole journalists with agendas. Brian, too. 

She blames Brian more than she blames Curt - hadn’t blamed Curt at all, in fact, not at first. They shared a common suffering, to put it poetically. At least, it felt that way in 1974, when things degenerated from ‘glorious’ to ‘nightmare’ within months. Curt was so fucking lost; it was pathetic. She felt sorry for him then.

But maybe she’s been too sorry, for too many other people who didn’t deserve it. She invested too much compassion and support into the lot of them. She was a proper chameleon in her youth, too. Whatever the occasion called for, she did it. Go-go girl, party girl, costume designer, or caterer, that was Mandy. Brian took advantage, like most men. Curt may have been too stoned and too out of it to be conscious of anything, but he never did much to thank her, either. And Shannon - Well. The way the little bitch turned out was a sad story. Mandy had liked her, or had wanted to, before everything went to shit. As far as Mandy can tell, Shannon and Brian may have deserved each other.

She needs to think about herself, for a change. That’s been her goal for the last few years. No one else will do that for her.

And yet, she's still falling into the same traps - still talking about Brian and using his name. She gives the bartender a sour nod, wondering if she's only hurting herself by talking about the past. Damn glam rock. Maybe she can justify it as telling her own story about a broken, hollow time. That's something else Brian, Curt, and the rest won’t do for her. They won’t tell  _ Mandy’s  _ story, if they say anything at all. Anyway, there’s no such thing as bad publicity, right?

She finds a booth near the entrance and walks toward it. Her bracelets jingle against the dry skin of her wrists as she sits down to wait.


End file.
